In the United States of America, we are granted certain rights and freedoms by the U.S. Constitution. One of these rights, which I am no stranger to, is the freedom of speech.
What I witnessed Nov. 13 at the Friends of the QueensWay “workshop” was nothing short of the suppression of the community’s freedom of speech. It is a shame that in 2013 individuals’ voices are still being muffled by schemes and techniques similar to those used by the QueensWay group that night.
These are just a few of the suppression tactics I saw being used:
1. Upon entering the meeting to sign in, you were separated from the people you came in with and sent to designated tables where there were already two individuals waiting at your table who were in favor of the QueensWay project.
2. Meeting organizers planted many individuals from Forest Hills and Rego Park, who were in favor of the QueensWay, to drown out the voices of those who were opposed.
3. There was no open forum for residents to voice their opinions.
These schemes and techniques are being used to suppress the opinions of the residents, business owners and others who are opposed to the project. In attendance at the meeting were residents of 98th Street as well as business owners who did not have the opportunity to voice their opinions. They were understandably angry.
I constantly hear the Friends of the QueensWay say they are currently in their “feasibility” phase of the process, which is an unacceptable excuse for not having any answers to the simple questions we all have about safety, maintenance, etc. Furthermore, I constantly hear the phrase “community outreach” being tossed around, but what I see is the suppression of the freedom of speech of local residents, which will not be tolerated.
I challenge the Friends of the QueensWay, XYZ Consultants and Hester Street Collaborative to engage in actual community outreach and have an honest, open forum where residents, business owners and those who will be affected will have a chance to voice their opinions and exercise their freedom of speech.
You can call my office anytime to set it up. I am here 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Mike Miller
State Assemblyman
(D-Woodhaven)
